Miss Communication: Lies and Cybersescurity

Most people I know, or have heard about, who have faced cybersecurity issues have believed something they shouldn’t. They read an email they thought was from their bank and clicked a link. They thought the person calling them on the phone about an issue with their computer sounded legitimate. Someone communicated with them about an issue and they believed them. These people found out too late this very legitimate-sounding communication was a lie.

It’s getting harder and harder to spot the lies. Sometimes you’ll get a message with misspellings and bad grammar. You’d think that your bank wouldn’t email to tell you, “Your over widrew you’re accountes.” So you know not to trust it and delete it without clicking on a link.

But, more often we’re getting emails, and text messages that seem real. Yesterday I got an email with an invoice for something I use, but don’t normally get an invoice for. Today I got a text message from someone. They said they had my number in their phone but didn’t know who it belongs to. Both of these seem like they could be real. So, I looked deeper.

I hovered over the “from” email address and saw that the email actually belonged to a Gmail account and not a well-known international business. As for the text message, I don’t give out my phone number to many people. Those who need to reach me know how to get in touch by more than one method.

I had to really think about both of these things before taking any action. I have years of experience working with cybersecurity awareness and I’ve spent a lot of time telling people to be cyber-smart. I can only imagine how hard it would be for someone who doesn’t spend time learning about cybersecurity. It must be challenging to know which message is true and which message is a lie.

So, what can you do to not fall for hackers’ miscommunication? Start by being suspicious. Not expecting an email from your credit card company? Use your browser to log in to your account, not the link in the email. Check with the company directly. Don’t click on links unless you’re expecting the message and know you can trust the sender.

According to the National Cybersecurity Alliance 2023 Oh Behave! report, 69% of people are confident in their ability to recognize phishing attempts. How confident are you that you’ll spot a hacker’s miscommunication?